Panther Tank

[volleyfireandy 2489xp 7]

It’s been a while since I did any armour for my Battlegroup Germans, so I thought I’d work up a Zvezda Panther I’ve had knocking around for a while. One of the joys of working with 1/72 kits is the amount of aftermarket upgrade sets around, so this ones had a replacement gun from turned metal, and etched engine deck grills added. It was painted mostly with AK interactive paints and enamels, with the foliage from Seafoam and leaves from Antennocities Workshop

[a27cromwell 3212xp 0]

Great looking early D  Panther , Andy . Really like the open rear stowage box , photo etch , or did you cut it open yourself ?

[somegeezer 18480xp 0]

Dude that’s brilliant!

[oriskany 60786xp 0]

Epic looking Panther, @volleyfireandy .  @a27cromwell – you can tell it’s a “D” because of the front glacis plate / machine gun port and the exhaust assembly?  If I remember correctly the exhaust of the early Panther Ds (the first ones used as Cherkasskoye / Kursk with 10th Panzer Brigade / Grossdeustchland Division) would not burn the fuel completely and it would accumulate along the inside of those exhaust pipes until they caught fire and more or less blew up the tank.

The PSC kits in 15mm (45 parts in a 15mm kit!) were really helpful with this, they gave separate exhaust assemblies for Ds, As, and Gs, so you could pick which variant you wanted to build.

[a27cromwell 3212xp 0]

Early D had letter box flap bow MG , fuel drum looking commander’s cupola , the message  port on the turret as well as 3 pistol ports  ( early Tiger II Porsche turret had these as well ) .Then message port welded closed , then removed . Pistol ports removed next  . Just like the Tiger I , the panther seemed to have cosmetic  changes / mechanical  up grades about every 25 to 30 tanks built on the assembly line . IRC , the Panther had about 8 variations of the exhaust pipe setup ,wtf ?  Plus you had them  adding older parts left in stock to the newest version of tank being built , really making it a PIA to identify the date of manufacture . Lots of great books out there if you want to go deep into details , Panzer Tracks , Nuts & Bolts , or go cheap with Squadron/ Signal or Osprey paperbacks if your not to much of a rivet counter

[FOGH 7155xp 0]

You’ve done an awesome job on that model! Top work ??

[volleyfireandy 2489xp 0]

Thank you people!

@a27cromwell The kits bin lids are separate, so I sliced it at the hinge and angled it open, the bucket came from SHQ, but had to be on there. It’s actually a lovely kit, but the decals are shockingly bad. They are very early 80’s Soviet era printing, which was disappointing. I’m getting more of these to do at least a zug for Battlegroup.

The main identifier for the Ausf D is the turret, Ausf D and early A production was concurrent, so the early A hulls share a few features, such as the lack of glacis MG  and the A having a different cupola. I think there were different welds  on manufacturing of the armour plate, though I’m not sure on the specifics of that.

 

[a27cromwell 3212xp 0]

Yes the turret is a min identifier but so many small changes and stuff that can only be seen in a top view picture ( loaders periscope , armored vent cover , pilzen mounts , etc ) . Here’s a couple of pages from a Russian and Japanese hobby publication . No idea what books they from as I tend to re title the pictures for my own file system and  I‘ve had these for years  . The Japanese book ( Ground Power , maybe . IRC OOP ) was a go to series of books in the 80s , lots of fantastic scale drawings on par with Jenz & Doyle . Wish I had purchased them when I had the chance .

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